Arcana:

(PENDLETON, ADAM). Pendleton, Adam. New York: Zucker Art Books, 2018. First Edition #8/24. Elephant Folio. Wrappers in Clamshell Box. Artist's Book. As New./No Jacket - As Issued.. XXX RETURNED CONSIGNMENT UNSOLD 10/21 - np (200pp), profusely illustrated in monochrome silkscreen. "Anthology" is Adam Pendleton's massive - 18 ½ x 14 ¼ x 2", elaborately produced 2018 artist book featuring two hundred compositions and a unique cover. Isolated photographs and fragments photocopied from the pages of books in the artist's personal library are layered with marks, dashes, patterns, shapes, and handwriting that frequently verges on abstraction. Each composition is unique, but many elements iterate and recombine throughout the series: masks, ceramics, phrases ("WHAT A DAY WAS THIS"; "IF THE FUNCTION"), and historical images related to the visual culture of decolonization. The compositions are directly related to Pendleton's ongoing series of works on Mylar, and the book translates and indexes these source collages, which are usually printed on transparent film. In "Anthology" they have been silkscreened onto delicate Japanese Shoji paper. Reflecting the combinatorial nature of the compositions, each book has a unique canvas fabric cover with a black-and-white pattern, screen printed with one of four handwritten texts. Pendleton has collated the works in this large volume in chronological sequence, encouraging readers to track the recurring components of the series as they phase in and out across the book's two hundred pages. A brand new, most handsome example of the book from an edition limited to twenty-four SIGNED AND NUMBERED copies each with a unique silkscreened cover housed in the publisher's debossed black cloth clamshell box, as issued. Inventory Number: 026872